Use of A/An/The ...... Articles

Sorry, I was in random chat :)

OK, AS first. We don't say 'a good advice'. A good piece of advice, yes :) We can also say 'words of advice'. Maaarysia, peace is pokój like the V-sign of the fingers.

Any other questions?

Grammatically speaking, what's the difference between 'a lot of' and 'lots of'?? Please think grammatically and not how natives mistakenly use those terms.

Now, you got me on that ;)

By the way, teflcat a lot of thanks for the "however" schematics, very useful!

But wait a minute, what about furniture, knowledge, news, information? All are used with this "piece" word or are there some other words which we can use it this case?

Pieces of furniture or even bits though pieces is better :)

Areas of knowledge, parts of knowledge or fragments even.

News is a tough one. We'd likely say 'news clips' or 'news broadcasts', in that way.

Screeds of information (a lot of), swathes of info (the same) or, also uncountable, there is a dearth/shortage of info :)

A lot of should be used with uncountable things, e.g beer, oxygen or hope. 'Lots of' with countable, e.g lots of birds, lots of cars or lots of tables etc etc. Oh, etc means et cetera, Mods. It is also quite common :) :) Is it acceptable?? ;) Maybe I shouldn't be using a Latin words, sorry, Latin words ;) ;) ;)

A lot of money but lots of cars? OK. Oll Korrect (Mods). E.g. is exempli gratia (for example).

Do you place a comma before "but"?

Also explain the use of the word "far". Far more? Far much?

Exactly! I like to show students that they are not always mutually exclusive either. Let's choose a subject, i.e beer :) :)

I drink a lot of beer (przykładowy, lol) but I drink 'lots of beers'. The latter means many different types of beer(s). I go through lots of bottles of beer in a week :) Bottles is the counter :) Glasses could apply too :) I like 'a glass of beer' at the weekend :)

Comma before but? I don't want to go off-topic ;) ;) (usually not, no, but many put one there).

Far much?? What do you mean here?

do we say too much money or too many money?


No, they don't.
How many points I've scored for this answer? ;)


and far enough. Does it mean "wystarczy"?

Well... Perhaps I've misled you.

There are far more cars in the US than they are in Poland. Correct? Talking on far and countable noun.
I drink far more beer than you do. Correct or wrong?

Can you give me an example when you say 'far much'? ;)

You can say much more (uncountable) or many more (countable). Far more applies to both, am I right?

Yep.

OK, another dimension. When using the intensifiers, so and such, what is the difference when it comes to using the indefinite articles, 'a' and 'an'?

please, keep to a/an/the (some, countable/uncountable, singular/plural)

a thread on mixed grammar will probably get moved to off topic.

such big house - Look, there is such big house on the conrer. Maybe we should go there. (Patrz, tam jest taki duży dom. Może powinniśmy tam właśnie pójść?)

such a big house - Such a big house, still it's too small for them! (Taki duży dom a nie mogą się w nim pomieścić!)

We would never say 'such big house', Maaarysia. A house is one, one of a general group. Such a big house, very good :) :) With such, you can include an article where appropriate but not with so, e.g 'such a beautiful day' but 'such beautiful weather'. We don't count weather so no indefinite article is included.

So the only difference is countable/uncountable nouns. There is no difference in meaning or context?


yeah, I never heard anybody saying it's a so beautiful morning... ;)

No :) 'A' just means one of a general category :) Such an idiotic man (one of many but with the focus on him at this moment). The government shows such idiocy in their decision-making processes. They general exhibit this quality. Always remember that 'a' is one and general :) :)

You could say 'so a good thing to do would be....' but it doesn't serve the function of an intensifier then, more one of advice :)

btw. what would be the plural form of this noun?

We would tend not to pluralise it but it would be 'I could forgive you for your multiple idiocies'. It doesn't look right but is grammatically sound. Anyway, let's stay on track, Maaarysia. I know you have questions :)

So can I say:
The government shows such strenght in their decision-making processes
or:
The goverment shows such a strength when dealing with the recent opponents' objections.

Do I feel it right now?

Let me ask you this. Is strength countable or uncountable??

Umm.. I've never thought about it. Probably you're right - it's not countable but my point is if I had used a countable noun these sentences would be correct? :)

btw.
but my point is if I had used a countable noun these sentences would be correct?
or
but my point is whether if I had used a countable noun these sentences would be correct?

Let's stay on track with the articles, Maaarysia :)

Please fill in the missing word:

NATO's initial attack on Afghanistan (Tora Bora) was a violent .... of strength :)

act

NATO's initial attack on Afghanistan (Tora Bora) was such a violent act of strength.
NATO's interventions aren't generally such violent act of strength.

I have made a new thread for general English grammar. Seanus, could you help please?

Maaarysia, that works :) I was thinking 'show' of strength :)

AS, ok. Let's keep the focus here though.

would "a demonstration" or "a display" be OK too?

I also thought of those options, strzyga :) I want to keep the options open so people can contribute with their own ideas like you did, so many thanks :)

OK, another aspect. We generally use the indefinite article 'an' with a following vowel, e.g an apple, an egg, an igloo, an orange or an umbrella. So, resident Poles, why do some natives choose to say 'an historian'? That's a hard case, I'm being a bit brutal here so maybe why don't we say 'an European' or 'an university'?? (given that e and u are vowels).

The difference between "a little [money]" vs. "little money" is that the former is more limiting within the circumscribed area of "money" and the latter isn't. "A little..." means that something might cost more than one bargians for, whereas "little money" usually means "cheap" in the use of "inexpensive" rather than "poor quality"-:) Quantifying adjectives are often of particular for Slavic speakers.

Regarding the definite article however, typically certain Romance languages such as Italian or French, use it where in English, even in German, it would seem superfluous, e.g. simple naming of various daily comestible articles like "bread", "vegetables", "fruit", "meat". In English, all are named in the abstract without a compulsory definite article, but never in, say, Italian: IL pan, LA verdura etc..., even foreign languages, LO spagnolo, IL italiano, etc.. and furthermore, always masculine!

I guess that history is a French word originaly and the French don't pronounce "h". Is that the correct answer?


REALLY?! So I made those mistakes in every single sentence for over a year of my stay on this forum and no one dared to tell me that?! :)

Does it apply to usual as well?

Is it due to the phonetic sound 'yoo'.

strzyga, most fluent speakers would likely say show of strength for alliterative reasons, like slippery slope